I AM THE LORD THY GOD which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go” (Isaiah 48:17b).
With God to guide us, with the Lord to lead us, we have a continual comfort in Christ that we are being led “in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake” (Psalm 23:3). Having unfortunately had comparatively little aid from the vicarious experience of veteran missionaries when we first came to Uganda, and, consequently, embarking on a journey to personally pioneer the most effective path to evangelize Africa, we are confident in Christ that our path is that of the just, which “is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (Proverbs 4:18). God seems to be revealing new and better things to us each day, teaching us to profit, and leading us in the way we should go!
This, of course, comes at a great personal price. Our church has never been more prayerful than in the past 2 months, and yet, at the same time, our church has never been more afflicted with various hardships. Diseases left and right of all kinds (for example, at the time of writing, I Jesse am currently recovering from a fourth bout of malaria in just over a year); financial pressures which God solves only at the perfect timing; major setbacks in the minor renovations of the compound which, glory to God, have just been completed; a strong resistance to the gospel by the lost en masse, which waxes worse and worse each day; and numerous faithful church members, who before were three-to-thrive, who seem to be getting irretreivably entangled with the affairs of this life. But we must remember, “many are the afflictions of the righteous” (Pslam 34:19). It is only the church which upsets no spiritual adversaries which experiences no serious adversities.
These are but light afflictions, though, compared to the exceeding and eternal weight of glory being worked for us as we continue to minister the gospel of God and the word of God in Uganda. Nothing moves and nothing harms us, while we trust in him.
Ministry Results for August and September
One of the most exciting things we get to do is to “get up early to the vineyards” to see “if the vine fourish, whether the tender grapes appear, and the pomegranates bud forth” (Song of Songs 7:12). That is to say, we get to collect the results of the church work and “declare particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by” our “ministry” (Acts 21:19).
Given the fact that all of our sermons are now rapidly uploaded to our YouTube channel, we think this provides a sufficient glimpse into the doctrinal life of the church for any who are interested. We have slowly come to see that, with Africa, less is more, so we have been working on reducing our preaching time to 45 minutes average, rather than 60 minutes average. Please pray that God would give us more of his good gift of the Holy Spirit as we preach and as the people hear the word of God.
The soul-winning of the church, like the fire on the altar in the temple (Leviticus 6:13), never goes out. Over these two months, we saw a collective 1,771 people led to Christ through personal evangelism (902 in August and 869 in September). These numbers are still high, despite unreceptivity, because there are a few people at our church who are going soul-winning for dozens of hours each week, most especially a couple of our dedicated full-time local soul-winners. We were able to successfully compel 73 of them to come to God’s house—though the fact that so many cannot endure sound doctrine inevitably repels most from returning faithfully. There were also 3 more people who finished their training as soul-winners, and have joined the army of the Lord winning souls to Jesus! Please pray for these new soul-winners, Jackie, Angela (not John’s wife; a different person by the same name), and Boreen, that they would stand fast in the Lord, and continue serving Christ all the days of their life.
 New Class for New Believers
For a long time now, we have used a 10-lesson curriculum of new-believer lessons to ground and settle newcomers in the basic practices of Christianity. However, upon much prayer and further advisement, we have come to see that we should revert it back to an 8-lesson system (like we did when we first arrived in Uganda), and to no longer have multiple people teaching them, but to have one principal class only on early Sunday mornings (a kind of “Sunday school”), which we will be calling Foundations. The key to the success of this new class, we believe, is that we will separate doctrine from practice. The class will have the goal of teaching the doctrine, but the practice will be taught by personal mentors of the church (mature soul-winners), using what we call “mentorship lessons.” So, instead of just hearing the teacher tell people to read the Bible, and maybe having someone explain to them how to do so haphazardly, the person who takes it upon themselves to mentor the new believer (usually the one who led them to Christ, unless there is a gender-difference or other hindrance) will teach them practically how to read the Bible, how to pray, etc. in a personal, one-on-one setting.
Evangelistic Stories
The Gust of Disgust, by Jesse
It was about five o’clock in the evening, with a kindly-beaming sunshine lightening my path on the main Kibuli road. I approached a young man, named Alpha, who initially expressed hesitancy to hear the gospel, but by and by gave way to the Wind of God, blowing where He lists. By the end of the gospel, this man thirsted for more spiritual enlightenment, manifested by his numerous questions. What gave me the greatest grin, however, was his disgust for all the devils and deceivers here in Africa. In fact, since leaving his family’s home, he hadn’t been to church in over 4 years, absolutely annoyed with all the prosperity preaching and petty prostration before Mammon. I did there bless God in my soul—what attracts the masses of foolish people, repels the minority of wise people. God has hidden these gospel things from the covetous and self-seeking, and has revealed them to the lovers of the truth.
Alpha came to the very next church service, and has continued faithful to the present day. May God give us more people who forsake fables and seek the truth!
God Opens Doors, by John
A grateful thanks is in order to all who continue to support us by prayer and financial donations.
While the church maintenance expenses (like rent, utilities, Bibles/New Testaments, printing, etc.) have been a continual source of need, we see God working in adding to the church and increasing their generosity, such to that more resources of the ministry will be devoted to outreach (like mission trips to unreached areas). We have an unquenchable desire to see God’s gospel spread all over Africa through this ministry. May God hasten it in his good timing.
God bless you all!